CARAMEL

Back in march I watched a piece called Caramel by Instant Dissidence which is a performance company who create conceptually-driven cutting-edge choreographic works.  My first impression of the piece was that it would be very unique as it is a cross between a dance and a cooking session which stimulated all five senses. As the performers said, their aim was for the audience to uncover their own meaning of the work by the taste of the choreography. As I walked into the studio I was welcomed by the 4 cast members with a handshake and they introduced themselves, this led me to believe the work would be a dance theatre piece. The room was dark and we as an audience was seated ‘in a round’ and the whole middle of the space was filled with dim lights hanging from the ceiling, wires and a line of sugar taking up the whole length of the studio; this was intriguing to the eye because it was something different from everything else I have seen before. My impression then sadly changed when the performance started as it got off to a very ‘cheesy’ start when one of the dancers asked the audience if you could taste choreography, what would it taste like?’ I didn’t understand what they meant by this soi it was hard to engage with the piece.

The whole piece was based on choreography in its process, in this case the process of making caramel. I liked this about the choreography because it was a live piece and anything could have ruined the caramel but they quite literally made it and obviously would have taken practice for a dancer. Performing may come more naturally however, for cooking in front of an audience this takes practice and patience.  Later on once the caramel had been made a small section about 3 minutes long was the only climax for me where they had the melting caramel hanging from the dim lights and had them swinging and the dancers would ‘dodge’ them which built suspense for the audience. Other than that the work stayed very mono toned throughout and did not take me on a journey and I certainly didn’t taste the choreography.

To conclude I saw potential in this piece for example watching the theatre lights transforming into sculptures and making real caramel for the audience to taste was interesting. Some of the rest of the work was boring and was not clear to an audience what was happening or the aim of it.